Cartons used for packaging products for storage or for shipment are typically made of corrugated board that has been die cut, scored, and glued to form a flat carton. A quantity of flat cartons are stacked and delivered to a production packaging line where the individual cartons are expanded from the flat condition to a rectangular tubular condition. The flaps on one end of the opened tubular carton are folded inward to close the bottom of the carton while the flaps on the top of the opened tubular carton remain unfolded.
While some cartons have equal sized side and end panels so as to become a square shape when opened, most cartons are unequal rectangles with two long side panels and two short end panels, the long side panels being in relatively opposing positions and the short end panels being in relatively opposing positions. When a stack of cartons is positioned at the production packaging line, the cartons are oriented with a set of flaps facing up and the opposite set of flaps facing down prior to opening the cartons for filling. As viewing a vertically oriented flat carton in side elevation, if the long side panel is to be moved to the left in order to open the carton, it is a left hand carton. Conversely, if the long side panel is to be moved to the right in order to open the carton, the carton is a right hand carton.
Numerous machine systems have been developed to open flat cartons into tubular shape. However, the known equipment for this opening process is basically for opening either left hand cartons or right hand cartons. Maintaining the left hand or right hand positioning of cartons is important because the printing on the carton panels must be properly oriented. Some of the present carton opening machines may be mechanically adjusted, e.g. by changing a gear or pulley, to change the configuration of the carton that will be formed from flat into tubular shape. Mechanical adjustment necessarily requires time and adds cost. Therefore, a need exists for a carton opening system able to be switched quickly from a left hand opening condition to a right hand opening condition.